This article argues that the traditional idealist-realist divide on educational thinking have been and shall continue to be regarded as "normal" so long as education is a continuum which derives its being from the disparity in human thought. To commute one to the other--specifically, idealist to realist--to meet desperate industrial needs would be tantamount to obliterating the dual view of reality, and reducing man to a straight-jacketed robot, alienating him from his essences; it would deny the very purpose of university education itself; which is to promote human curiosity and inquisitiveness that animate civilization and development. However, dialectically speaking, a synthesis of the idealism-realism divide exists in pragmatism from which derive compatibilism to harken to the call of industrial society for relevance of theoretical knowledge offered by the universities. This third perspective arising from the synthesis of the contending schools should illuminate the role of polytechnics and other professional and technical colleges, which engage in vocational studies that ought to serve the purpose of mediating the interest of the global marketplace. If the course offerings of the professional/vocational and technical institutions are still inadequate to serve industrial needs, compelling industry to maintain an eye on the university service in that direction, then workplaces "must" imbibe complementary in-service training programmes for the re-orientation of their inductees and existing work force on their core values, strategies and objectives, even as universities remain largely obligated to concentrate on their generic curricula. The article conducts an overview of the broad concern of tertiary academic institution, with a view to specifying that of the university; the two broad schools of education--idealism and realism--to clarify their features, relying more on LeoNora Cohen's (1999) work on philosophy of education. It further makes a case for their perennial division and suggests the relevance of polytechnics, work-study programmes as well as in-service training, to bridge the gap created by the perennial divide; and hopefully, serve the needs of industry.